After declaring a state of emergency in Flint, Michigan following the lead contamination within the city’s water, President Obama is further addressing the ongoing crisis. “I know that if I was a parent up there, I would be beside myself that my kid’s health could be at risk,” he said during a speech at the United Auto Workers-General Motors Center in Detroit. The President also taped an interview with CBS in Detroit where he said that he empathizes with the residents of Flint who have had to use polluted water following a state-approved plan to save money by using water from the Flint River instead of the Detroit municipal system. “What is inexplicable and inexcusable is once people figured out that there was a problem there, and that there was lead in the water, the notion that immediately families weren’t notified, things weren’t shut down,” Obama said. “That shouldn’t happen anywhere.” Huffington Post

Reckless Driver Faces Nearly 100 Charges After Deadly Crash

Lakeisha Holloway, the 24-year-old woman who hit 37 pedestrians with her car in Las Vegas now faces 71 counts of attempted murder and battery with a deadly weapon. She was initially charged with open murder as an Arizona woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Her 3-year-old daughter was in the backseat of the car at the time of the incident which resulted in a child neglect charge being added to list as well as a child abuse charge for hitting an 11-year-old boy with her vehicle. Holloway, who was homeless and living in her car prior to the accident, faces more than 1,000 years in prison if convicted. She is due back in court on February 4th. NBC News

KKK Leader Who Killed Teen With Bow & Arrow Denied Parole

Russell Hinson is currently serving life in prison for the murder of Felicia Houston who was 16-years-old at the time of her death. In 1992, Hinson, shot a bow with a razor tipped arrow through the chest of Houston as she and her two cousins walked along a sidewalk in Monroe, North Carolina. According to Hinson’s trial testimony, the former Ku Klux Klan leader was purposely trying to take the life of an African American after a black drug dealer ripped him off of $70 when he tried to buy crack cocaine that December. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1993. He was recently denied parole for the second time by the N.C. Parole Commission. In the rare case that Hinson is ever paroled for the death of Houston, he will have to serve an additional five years in a federal prison for a conviction from 1989 for felony civil rights intimidation. The Charolette Observer

Thousands Of Students Will Receive Free Books In North Carolina

A third-grade student in Charlotte, NC shared that she only has one book at home so she reads the same story every night. A new community initiative entitled, Read Charlotte, just provided that little girl with her second book. The goal of the new program is to improve reading proficiency by providing one new book to all 30,000 pre-K to third-graders in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Title 1 elementary schools. “Unlike poverty or housing, we can help kids build their home libraries” said Munro Richardson, executive director of Read Charlotte. Within the next ten years, the initiative hopes to improve standardized test scores and literacy rates amongst elementary school students. The Charolette Observer

NYPD officers have been protesting outside the home of Howard Edelman. The arbitrator was hired to oversee a hearing between the NYPD and the city. After 46 days of work for a salary of $2,500 a day, he decided that officers should only receive a 1% raise. “I looked at my check a couple of days ago, and there was, like, 37 more dollars in it. That’s about 60 extra bucks a month,” shared an officer anonymously, “How am I going to feed my kids on that?” Meanwhile, Edelman’s total take home pay was $115,000 which also included charging the city for a days work when a hearing was canceled. While the officers outrage seems to be entirely justifiable, their labor union Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) voted to go to arbitration and signed off on Edelman’s per diem after negotiations with City Hall broke down in 2014. Nevertheless, the PBA is outraged by his work product “Howard Edelman clearly did not legitimately earn his pay in this arbitration,” said PBA President Patrick Lynch in a statement. NY Daily News